8. Heavy Breathing - Kit Spooner
Title: Heavy Breathing
Name: Kuchiki Rukia
Rating: Yachiru
Badfic Writer: Kit Spooner
Description: Canon... except she is not physically fit despite being a member of the Gotei Thirteen.
Pairings: Ichigo/Rukia
Sample:
It was a close call. Even Rukia had to admit it as she stood hunched over, panting so desperately that she didn't bother to watch Ichigo finish off the Hollow. She didn't see the grace with which his sword cleft the monster's mask, or the nimble way he curled and landed on his feet afterward; she was busy trying to convince her body it wasn't dying.
"These blasted things . . ." she gasped, sucking air into her abused lungs. "This stupid gigai doesn't have nearly the endurance I'm used to." She pawed sweat-damp hair out of her eyes and tried not to think of the blood trickling from her skinned knee. "How do mortals stand it?" she wondered aloud, placing one slim hand over her heaving chest. "How do they stand these weak, slow bodies?"
Ichigo paused, his expression on the verge of furious. Rukia knew he was gearing up for another scolding for her being so nearly another victim of the Hollow he'd just killed. But she'd run, just as he'd told her, and she knew he didn't really have any good reason to be angry with her. Instead he watched her with those occasionally-stern eyes and said nothing.
Rukia slowly regained her composure and her breathing returned to normal. Her muscles still ached, however, calves and thighs aching from the sudden abuse she'd dealt them. She was no longer the runner she had once been back at Soul Society. She was stuck in a body nearly as fragile as a human's and she wasn't quite sure how to deal with it.
"Ugh, I think my hamstring's cramped up," Rukia mumbled as she began hobbling homeward.
Ichigo followed. "Mortals work out when they want to get into better shape," Ichigo finally said.
Rukia glanced up at him from beneath her disheveled hair. "Work out?" It was an entirely foreign concept that she hadn't yet encountered in her research of modern culture.
The rounded the corner and paused at the threshold of the Kurosaki residence.
"People do exercises to strengthen their muscles," Ichigo continued while Rukia shinnied gingerly up the drainpipe and in through his bedroom window. Ichigo simply leapt.
This is just so that Ichigo can help Rukia train to get in shape... sure...